Tag Archives: Assad

U.S. concerned Russia moving military equipment into Syria

A Russian Sukhoi Su-24 front-line bomber is seen on a runway shortly before taking off, part of the withdrawal of Russian troops from Syria, at Hmeymim airbase, Syria,

By Roberta Rampton and John Irish

RIYADH/GENEVA (Reuters) – The United States said on Thursday it was concerned about reports that Russia is moving more military equipment into Syria to bolster President Bashar al-Assad with a truce in tatters and peace talks in meltdown.

Fighting raged across Syria after the truce, brokered by Washington and Moscow to allow talks to take place, ended and both sides geared up for more war. Russian intervention late last year swayed the conflict in Assad’s favor.

“We’ve been concerned about reports of Russia moving materiel into Syria,” Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser to President Barack Obama, said at a news briefing in Riyadh, where Obama was at a summit with Gulf Arab leaders.

“We think it would be negative for Russia to move additional military equipment or personnel into Syria. We believe that our efforts are best focused on supporting the diplomatic process,” Rhodes added.

U.N. special envoy Staffan de Mistura will on Friday assess whether Geneva talks can continue with the main opposition negotiator refusing to participate and combatants accusing each other of breaking the six-week-old ceasefire.

The opposition this week urged more military support for rebels after declaring a truce was over.

Major nations have urged both parties not to miss this chance to try to halt the five-year conflict in which more than 250,000 people have been killed but on Thursday only experts were meeting and more opposition representatives were leaving.

Syrian government negotiators say Assad’s presidency is non-negotiable while the opposition says the president must step down and complains of no progress on an end to violence, humanitarian access and political detainees.

BUOYED BY RUSSIAN FIREPOWER

Both sides remain far apart and it will be difficult to lure the opposition back to the table if fighting resumes unchecked, with the government taking advantage of Russia’s firepower.

Press reports in the United States have indicated that Russia has moved more artillery into Syria, weeks after declaring a partial withdrawal of its military presence there.

States opposed to Assad have been channeling military support to vetted rebel groups via both Turkey and Jordan, in a program that has included military training overseen by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.

France, which accused the government of rushing “headlong” into violence and showing its refusal to negotiate a political solution, said it would consider with other European powers and the United States the idea of convening a ministerial meeting of major powers in the next two weeks to work out what to do.

The talks in Geneva aim to halt a conflict that has allowed for the rise of the Islamic State group, sucked in regional and major powers and created the world’s worst refugee crisis.

Total collapse of the talks would leave a diplomatic vacuum allowing further escalation of the war that is being fueled by rivalries between foreign powers including oil producers Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Syria’s fragile peace talks might not resume for at least a year if they are abandoned now, a senior Western diplomat warned. “If we all leave Geneva, I don’t see the process continuing.”

Russia says that its intervention in Syria consists mainly of air and rocket strikes. It says its presence on the ground is limited to a naval base at the port of Tartous, an air base at Hmeymim, in Syria’s Latakia province, search-and-rescue crews to recover downed air crews, de-mining specialists, and advisers.

In the past month, it has acknowledged for the first time that it has special forces conducting operations behind enemy lines. It has previously denied having regular units and artillery on the ground.

BATTLE FOR ALEPPO

The widely violated truce began fraying some two weeks ago near Aleppo, where the Syrian army accused rebel groups of taking part in assaults by Islamists who are not covered by the ceasefire. Rebels say they were defending themselves from attacks by the army and its Shi’ite militia allies.

The opposition accuses the government of violating the cessation of hostilities to capture Aleppo, Syria’s most populous city before the war, which has been divided between government-controlled and rebel-held zones for years.

The United Nations expressed deep concern over the fate of Syrians who have fled fighting near the northern city of Aleppo.

The Syrian government negotiator Bashar Ja’afari poured contempt on the opposition for its partial walkout, accusing it of sulking and political immaturity.

Leaving Geneva on Thursday, senior Syrian opposition negotiator Mohammad Alloush said Syrian government forces must “stop massacres” before talks can resume.

De Mistura said on Thursday there had been modest progress on humanitarian aid in Syria and Russia was pushing for a convoy to enter the besieged town of Daraya. He said in the next few days he would appoint a coordinator to handle the issue of detainees in Syria.

The envoy said prevention by the Syrian government of the passage of medical equipment into besieged areas was “worrisome” and against international law.

(Writing by Peter Millership, reporting by Stephanie Nebehay, Bushra Shakshir and Tom Perry)

Assad’s future not up for discussion at peace talks

Hijab, chief coordinator HNC addresses a news conference aside of Syria peace talks in Geneva

AMMAN (Reuters) – The Syrian government’s chief negotiator said President Bashar al-Assad’s future was not up for discussion at peace talks, underlining the bleak prospects for reviving U.N.-led negotiations postponed by the opposition.

Bashar Ja’afari, speaking to Lebanese TV station al Mayadeen, also said his team was pushing for an expanded government as the solution to the war – an idea rejected by the opposition fighting for five years to topple Assad.

Ja’afari was reiterating the Syrian government’s position as spelt out last month ahead of the latest round of talks, indicating no shift on the part of Damascus as it continues to enjoy firm military backing from Russia and Iran.

“In Geneva we have one mandate only to arrive at an expanded national government only, this is our mandate … this is the goal we strive to achieve in the Geneva peace talks,” Ja’afari said in comments broadcast overnight. He added that these views were relayed to U.N. Syria mediator Staffan de Mistura.

Ja’afari also said Assad’s fate could never be raised in peace talks nor was it a matter that any U.N.-backed political process could deliberate.

“This matter (the presidency) does not fall under the jurisdiction of Geneva … this is a Syrian-Syrian affair, Security Council or no Security Council,” he said.

The Western-backed Syrian mainstream opposition decided on Monday to take a pause in peace talks. It said Damascus was not serious about moving towards a U.N.-backed political process they say would bring a transitional governing body with full executive powers without Assad.

A U.N. Security Council resolution in December called for the establishment of “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance”, a new constitution, and free and fair elections within 18 months.

Ja’afari also said any ideas such as those floated recently by de Mistura that sought to bridge the gap between the two sides should not touch existing state institutions or the army.

“We won’t allow any constitutional vacuum to take place. What does that mean? It means the army stays as it is and state institutions continue to function,” he added.

The opposition says restructuring the army and security apparatus is an essential step towards establishing a democratic Syria.

Ja’afari accused the Western-backed opposition of seeking to bring about a collapse of the country and replicate the chaos seen in Iraq and Libya after Western military intervention brought down long severing authoritarian rulers.

“They want to repeat the experience of Libya and Iraq … and turn Syria into a failed state,” he said.

(Reporting by Suleiman Al-Khalidi; Editing by Tom Perry and Tom Heneghan)

Prospects for Syrian Peace Talks Bleak

Smoke rises after an airstrike in the rebel held area of old Aleppo

By John Irish and Tom Perry

GENEVA/BEIRUT (Reuters) – Prospects for reviving Syrian peace talks were bleak on Tuesday with the opposition saying the postponement was indefinite with a truce over, and the government ruling out any negotiations about the presidency of Bashar al-Assad.

The collapse of the Geneva talks leaves a diplomatic vacuum that could allow a further escalation of the war that is being fueled by rivalries between foreign powers including oil producers Iran and Saudi Arabia.

As fighting raged and air strikes on rebel-held areas intensified, the opposition urged foreign states to supply them with the means to defend themselves, a thinly veiled reference to the anti-aircraft weapons long sought by insurgents.

The United States, meanwhile, told Russia that Syria was starting to “fray more rapidly”, signaling concern about its possible fragmentation as the most serious peace-making effort in two years appeared to be falling apart.

The mainstream Western-backed opposition announced a pause on Monday, blaming Assad for violating a ceasefire. Damascus blamed rebels for breaking the cessation of hostilities.

Chief Syrian government negotiator Bashar Ja’afari said his team was pushing for an expanded government as a solution to the war, an idea rejected by the armed opposition which has fought for five years to oust Assad whose fortunes on the battlefield have been boosted by military backing from Iran and Russia.

The Geneva talks aim to end a war that has killed more than 250,000 people, created the world’s worst refugee crisis, allowed for the rise of the Islamic State group and drawn in regional and major powers. Russia’s intervention in the conflict swayed the war in Assad’s favor.

The opposition has blamed Damascus for using the talks to press their advantage militarily to regain territory.

Damascus has accused rebel groups of joining attacks by the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, which like the Islamic State group is not covered by the truce.

With fighting reported across much of northwest Syria on Tuesday, both sides were obdurate.

“Our mandate in Geneva stops at forming a national unity government,” Ja’afari told Reuters. “We have no mandate whatsoever either to address the constitutional issue meaning establishing a new constitution or addressing parliamentary elections or addressing the fate of the presidency.

“It’s not the business of anybody in Geneva. It happens when the Syrian people decide,” he said in an interview.

ASSAD IS “DREAMING”

Ahead of leaving Geneva, Riad Hijab, chief coordinator of the main opposition HNC bloc, said there was no chance of returning to talks while the government broke the truce, blocked humanitarian access and ignored the issue of detainees.

Clearly angry, Hijab dismissed any suggestion that Assad could stay in power, saying he was “dreaming.”

Major powers were paralyzed and needed to reevaluate the truce and the humanitarian situation through the International Syrian Support Group that includes the United States, Russia, European states and key regional powers, Hijab said.

As things stood, Hijab said the HNC could not return to formal talks while people were suffering, although they would leave experts in Geneva to discuss certain issues. The Syrian government side is staying on.

U.S. President Barack Obama said he told Russian President Vladimir Putin in their call on Monday that Syria is starting to fray more rapidly and that the war-torn country cannot move forward if the United States and Russia are not in sync.

De Mistura attempted to convene peace talks in January, but these failed before they had even started in earnest largely due to a worsening situation on the ground. The new effort, which began last month, came after the implementation on Feb. 27 of the partial truce brokered by the Washington and Moscow.

But the opposition is adamant that the Damascus government is not serious about moving toward a U.N.-backed political process they say would bring a transitional governing body with full executive powers without Assad.

A U.N. Security Council resolution in December called for the establishment of “credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governance”, a new constitution, and free and fair elections within 18 months.

De Mistura said both sides were “not yielding a comma” on their political demands, but said that was normal in a negotiation. He would take stock of progress on Friday.

The opposition was categoric the suspension was indefinite.

“There is no date, the date … is the implementation of matters on the ground, and likewise the correction of the path of negotiations. All the while that does not happen, the time period will remain open,” the opposition’s George Sabra said.

The opposition also had “big complaints” about U.S. policy which he said sought to carry on talks “without us obtaining anything real”, he said. He called on international powers to supply Syrians with the means to defend themselves.

FIGHTING RAGES ACROSS NORTHWEST

“Let’s be realistic. The escalation will start,” said Bashar al-Zoubi, a prominent rebel leader. Ahmed Al-Seoud, the head of another rebel group, said he hoped for more military support from Assad’s foreign enemies.

Syrian forces backed by Russian warplanes launched a counter-attack against rebels in the northwestern province of Latakia, a rebel group and a conflict monitor reported, as violence was reported across much of the northwest on Tuesday.

Targets included towns and villages where a partial truce agreement had brought about a lull in fighting.

Air strikes killed at least five people in the town of Kafr Nubl in the insurgent stronghold of Idlib province, and three others in nearby Maarat al-Numan, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring organization reported.

Rockets fired by insurgents killed three children in nearby Kefraya, a Shi’ite town loyal to the government, it said. State media said the dead were members of one family.

Fighting in Latakia focused on areas where insurgent groups had launched an attack on government forces on Monday, and where battles had often erupted despite the cessation of hostilities.

“The regime is trying to storm the area, with the participation of Russian helicopters and Sukhoi (warplanes),” said Fadi Ahmad, spokesman for the First Coastal rebel group in the area. The Observatory said fighting had raged since morning.

Government air strikes and barrel bombing was reported in northern areas of Homs province that are under rebel control. The use of barrel bombs, or oil drums filled with explosives, has been denied by the Syrian government but widely recorded including by a U.N. commission of inquiry on Syria. The Syrian army could not immediately be reached for comment.

(Reporting by Tom Perry in Beirut, John Irish in Geneva, writing by Peter Millership)

Syria HNC offers to share transition

Al-Muslat, spokesman for the HNC, attends an interview with Reuters in Geneva,

GENEVA (Reuters) – Syria’s main opposition group is willing to share membership of a transitional governing body with current members of the government of President Bashar al-Assad, but not Assad himself, the group’s spokesman told Reuters in Geneva.

“There are many people on the other side who we can really deal with,” Salim al-Muslat, the spokesman for the High Negotiations Committee, said on the second day of a round of U.N.-mediated peace talks in Geneva.

“We will have no veto, as long as they don’t send us criminals, as long as they don’t send us people involved in the killing of Syrians.”

(This version of the story corrects last word to say “Syrians” instead of “criminals”)

(Reporting by Tom Miles; editing by John Stonestreet)

Syria’s Assad shows no willingness to compromise

Syria's President Bashar al-Assad speaks during an interview with Russia's RIA news agency

By Samia Nakhoul

CAIRO (Reuters)- – As the Syria peace talks resume next week, President Bashar al-Assad, backed militarily by Iran and Russia, shows no willingness to compromise, much less step aside to allow a transition Western powers claim is the solution to the conflict.

Threatened by rebel advances last year, Assad is now pumped up with confidence after Russian air strikes reversed the tide and enabled his army to recover lost ground from Sunni insurgents as well as the jihadis of Islamic State.

While Syria experts doubt he can recapture the whole country without an unlikely full-scale ground intervention by Russia and Iran, they also doubt President Vladimir Putin will force him out – unless there is a clear path to stability, which could take years.

Instead, Russia’s dramatic military intervention last September — after five years of inconclusive fighting between Assad and fragmented rebel groups mostly from Syria’s Sunni majority — has tilted the balance of power in his favour and given him the upper hand at the talks in Geneva.

The main target of the Russian air force bombardment was mainstream and Islamist forces that launched an offensive last summer. Only recently have Russia and Syrian forces taken the fight to Islamic State, notably by recapturing Palmyra, the Graeco-Roman city the jihadis overran last year.

The Russian campaign, backed by Iran’s Revolutionary Guards and Shi’ite militia such as Lebanon’s Hezbollah, has for now outmatched the rebels, including the al Qaeda-linked Nusra Front and units supported by Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey, and the United States.

REBELS LOSE MOMENTUM

Dealing with those groups rather than Islamic State seemed the main aim of Moscow’s intervention, analysts say.

“The Russian intervention fundamentally reshaped the Syrian conflict,” says Kheder Khaddour from the Carnegie Middle East Center. “The momentum of the rebels does not exist any more.”

Putin, diplomats say, weakened the opposition to coax it into accepting a settlement on Russian and Syrian terms. That does not mean the “transitional authority” sought by the U.S. and its allies, but a government expanded to include elements of the opposition, with Assad at its head for the immediate future.

Russia still wants Assad to lead the transition to the elections, while the opposition and its regional allies, including the United States and Europe, insist he should step down. So far no compromises are in sight.

“We need things to advance in the coming weeks. If the political process is just about putting a few opposition people in nominal cabinet posts then this isn’t going to go very far,” said a European diplomat close to the talks..

“If there isn’t a political transition the civil war will continue and Islamic State will benefit from it,” he said.

Fawaz Gerges, author of ISIS: A History, said: “At this point the Russians have the upper hand in dictating a solution. The Americans are playing on Russia’s playing field.”

UNCERTAINTY

His judgment is underlined by Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, who boasted in a recent interview that “the Americans understand they can do nothing without Russia. They can no longer solve serious problems on their own”.

Yet uncertainty surrounds Moscow’s intentions, after Putin suddenly withdrew part of his forces from Syria last month. That led to speculation among Assad’s enemies that Russia was contemplating whether to ditch Assad – an outcome many Syria watchers find highly improbable.

“The key issue remains when and if the Russians will act to facilitate this transition. It’s unclear, and we get the feeling that the recent talks didn’t change much in the Russian position,” the European diplomat said.

“I don’t think the upcoming round will reach any real decisions on the political process, he added.

Gerges says the partial pull-back sent a message to the Americans that Russia is a rational and credible force that is interested in a diplomatic settlement.

It was also intended as a jolt to Assad, by then so emboldened at the way Russia and Iran had transformed his weak position that he was announcing plans to recapture all of Syria.

“The message to the Assad regime was that Russia doesn’t play by Assad’s playbook, it doesn’t want to get down in Syria’s quagmire (but) wants to cut its losses,” Gerges believes.

But it is far from clear that Assad interprets these messages the same way.

Last month, he dismissed any notion of a transition from the current structure, as agreed by international powers, calling instead for “national unity” solution with some elements of the opposition joining the present government.

“The transition period must be under the current constitution, and we will move on to the new constitution after the Syrian people vote for it,” Assad told Russia’s Sputnik news agency.

ASSAD “WILL NOT GO QUIETLY”

Faisal al-Yafai, a leading commentator from the United Arab Emirates, says Russia “played its cards in Syria very cleverly, but miscalculated in one aspect”.

“They assumed that once the (Assad) regime felt secure, it would be more willing to negotiate. In fact, the opposite has happened”.

“There’s a limit to the pressure that Russia can exert on Assad. Assad absolutely will not go quietly — and certainly not when there is no real alternative to him, even within the regime,” says al-Yafai.

Robert Ford, the former U.S. ambassador to Syria and now a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute in Washington, agrees that Russia may not be able to compel Assad to go.

The secret police backbone of Assad’s rule remains intact, he says, and “Assad seems confident again, after his much more sober tone last summer. The Russians may have helped him too much, such that Assad can maintain control of key cities and roads for a long time”.

Ford also drew attention to the competition over Syria between Russia and Iran, Assad’s two main allies. Moscow’s emphasis is on its traditional relations with the Syrian military establishment, while Tehran focusses on the militia network it built with Hezbollah to shore up the regime.

“Assad is plenty smart to know how to play one country off against the other. I am not even sure Russia would test its heavy pressure capacity against that of Iran in Damascus. The Russians know they might lose”, Ford said.

Russia’s involvement in Syria has given it greater insight into the structure of the Assad rule, constructed to intermesh the Assad family and allies from its minority Alawite community with the security services and military command.

ASSAD BUOYANT

Khaddour from Carnegie says Russia now realises the circumstances for a transition do not yet exist, because removing Assad might unravel the whole power structure.

“There is a problem within the regime. It is not capable of producing an alternative to itself internally,” says Khaddour, adding the only concession it has made – simply to turn up in Geneva – was the result of Russian pressure.

With limits to Russian and Iranian influence on a newly buoyant Assad, few believe the Geneva talks will bring peace.

“If the Russians felt it was time for a solution they would have reached an understanding with the Americans to give up on Assad without giving up on the Alawites. The circumstances are not ripe yet for a solution,” says Sarkis Naoum, a leading commentator on Syria.

The diplomat added: “The fundamental question is still whether the Russians are serious and want this to happen.”

“Nobody knows what’s in their mind and I’m not sure they even know.”

(Additional reporting by John Irish; Editing by Giles Elgood)

Putin uses Assad visit to talk up Kremlin role as Syrian broker

Photo courtesy of REUTERS/Alexei Druzhinin/RIA Novosti/Kremlin

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Syrian President Bashar al-Assad flew to Moscow on Tuesday evening to thank Russia’s Vladimir Putin personally for his military support, in a surprise visit that underlined how Russia has become a major player in the Middle East.

It was Assad’s first foreign visit since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011, and came three weeks after Russia launched a campaign of air strikes against Islamist militants in Syria that has also bolstered Assad’s forces.

The Kremlin, which said it had invited Assad to visit Moscow, kept the visit quiet until Wednesday morning, broadcasting a meeting between the two men in the Kremlin and releasing a transcript of an exchange they had.

Putin said he hoped progress on the military front would be followed by moves towards a political solution in Syria, bolstering Western hopes Moscow will use its increased influence on Damascus to cajole Assad into talking to his opponents.

Assad’s confidence is likely to be boosted by the visit, which comes as his forces wage counteroffensives in western Syria against insurgents backed by Assad’s foreign opponent, as well as Islamic State militants.

“First of all I wanted to express my huge gratitude to the whole leadership of the Russian Federation for the help they are giving Syria,” Assad told Putin.

“If it was not for your actions and your decisions the terrorism which is spreading in the region would have swallowed up a much greater area and spread over an even greater territory.”

Russian officials have repeatedly said they have no special loyalty for the Syrian leader, but his audience with Putin will be seen in the West as yet another sign the Kremlin wants Assad to be part of any political solution, at least initially.

The visit also suggests that Russia, and not longtime ally Iran, has now emerged as Assad’s most important foreign friend.

Russian state TV made the meeting its top news item, showing Assad, dressed in a dark blue suit, talking to Putin, together with the Russian foreign and defense ministers.

The Kommersant daily cited unnamed sources saying meetings between the two delegations had lasted over three hours. The Syrian presidency Twitter account said Assad and Putin held three rounds of talks – one of them a closed meeting and the other two including Russia’s foreign and defense ministers.

The Kremlin has cast its intervention in Syria, its biggest in the Middle East since the 1991 Soviet collapse, as a common sense move designed to roll back international terrorism in the face of what it says is ineffective action from Washington.

It is likely to use Assad’s visit to buttress its domestic narrative that its air campaign is just and effective and to underline its assertion that its actions show it has shaken off the Ukraine crisis to become a serious global player.

Russia has a combined force of around 50 jets and helicopters in Latakia protected by Russian marines. It also has military trainers and advisers working with the Syrian army.

Russia’s air force says it has flown over 700 sorties against more than 690 targets in Syria since Sept. 30.

Assad, who looked relaxed, emphasized how Russia was acting according to international law, praising Moscow’s political approach to the Syrian crisis which he said had ensured it had not played out according to “a more tragic scenario.”

Ultimately, he said, the resolution to the crisis was a political one.

“Terrorism is a real obstacle to a political solution,” said Assad. “And of course the whole (Syrian) people want to take part in deciding the fate of their state, and not just the leadership.”

POLITICAL SOLUTION?

Putin said Russia was ready to help find a political solution and hailed the Syrian people for standing up to the militants “almost on their own”, saying the Syrian army had notched up serious battlefield success in recent times.

Sergei Shoigu, his defense minister, said Russia’s air support had helped the Syrian army move from defense to attack, saying Moscow would continue to provide military support.

Putin said Russia had felt compelled to act in Syria because of the threat Islamist militants fighting Assad’s forces there posed to its own security.

“Unfortunately on Syrian territory there are about 4,000 people from the former Soviet Union – at a minimum – fighting government forces with weapons in their hands,” said Putin.

“We, it goes without saying, can not allow them to turn up on Russian territory after they have received battlefield experience and undergone ideological instruction.”

Positive developments on the military front in Syria would provide a basis for a long-term political solution, involving all political forces, ethnic and religious groups, said Putin.

“We are ready to make our contribution not only in the course of military actions in the fight against terrorism, but during the political process,” he said, according to the transcript released by the Kremlin.

“This will, of course, be in close contact with other world powers and with countries of the region which are interested in a peaceful resolution of the conflict,” Putin said.

Interfax news agency said Putin briefed Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan by phone about the talks. Turkey, which supports rebels trying to overthrow Assad, said the Syrian leader should have stayed in Moscow for the sake of his country.

When asked whether Assad’s own political future had been discussed, Putin’s spokesman declined to comment.

How Assad got to and back from Moscow remains a mystery.

Syria’s ambassador to Russia, Riad Haddad, told Reuters Assad had traveled in a Syrian plane and had safely returned home after the meeting. But publicly available flight tracking data suggested Assad’s hosts may have laid on transport for him.

It showed an IL-76MD Russian military cargo plane flew from Syria to Moscow’s Chkalovsky military airfield on Tuesday, and that an IL-62M plane from Russia’s presidential fleet flew to Latakia, a government controlled Syrian province, that same evening.

(By Andrew Osborn; Additional reporting by Maria Tsvetkova, Ekaterina Golubkova and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Christian Lowe and Dominic Evans)

Putin Confirms Protecting Assad Regime

It seems now that President Vladimir Putin has confirmed what many have continued to suspect. On state run Russia 24 TV Putin acknowledged that the Russian airstrikes in Syria are meant to bolster President Bashar al-Assad’s regime.

“Our task is to stabilize the legitimate government and to create conditions for a political compromise … by military means, of course, The units of international terrorists and their ilk have no desire to negotiate with the Syrian government, who is almost sieged in its own capital.”
Russia has said it’s coordinating with the Syrian regime to target ISIS and other terrorists. Al-Assad has used the term “terrorists” to describe Syrians who seek his ouster.

Until now, Putin and the Russian military have stated numerous times that their main objective in Syria was to fight the Islamic State.

CNN military analyst Lt. Col. Rick Francona said he had no doubt Russia was targeting Syrian rebels rather than ISIS.

“I think it’s very apparent from the target sets that we’re watching. Even the maps that are released from the Russians themselves show where they’re concentrating their airstrikes,” Francona said.

“And if you look at the map where they are hitting, most of them are concentrated in that area between Hama and Aleppo — and that’s where the Syrian rebels have had success over the past two months.”

The bombings are numerous. The Russian Defense Ministry said it has struck 53 alleged Islamic State targets in the past 24 hours, destroying command centers, ammunition and fuel depots as well as training camps.

In the meantime, according to a government official, U.S. forces carried out an airdrop of small arms ammunition on Sunday to Syrian Arabs in northern Syria, a U.S. military official said on Monday.

The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the airdrop of supplies to the opposition fighters was part of a revamped U.S. strategy announced last week to help rebels in Syria battling Islamic State militants.